


Consider This

by doublejoint



Category: One Piece
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29252841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doublejoint/pseuds/doublejoint
Summary: Robin dreams of a train terminal.
Relationships: Koala/Nico Robin
Kudos: 6
Collections: February Ficlet Challenge 2021: Apocalypse No





	Consider This

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 6 of the February Ficlet Challenge: Terminal

Robin dreams of waiting for a train. She is standing on a platform, at a terminal; the single track ends a few meters to her left. The platform shakes and rumbles; there is no train on the empty horizon. The sky is clear. There are other people waiting, but their faces are blurred out somehow, as if covered by a filter, as if they’re not quite there. She is alone, once more.

She never knows she’s dreaming; she never thinks of using her powers to grow closer to the people, or the direction of the train to see it. It’s not a premonition; that’s beyond her capabilities. It probably means she’s thinking about something, but what? Trains? Loneliness?

She chews her breakfast slowly. Perhaps it just means she’s waiting for the day she returns to the crew (this cooking is not quite up to Sanji’s usual standard, and no one here asks her cheerfully how she’d like her tea or coffee today--an odd thing to miss, maybe, but perhaps the most stark difference). But the people here are kind; they value her knowledge and expertise, her combat experience. They accept her as she is; there is no conditional. The old feelings, the itch that something is not quite right and she has to make plans to clear out, only return occasionally (and have, less and less, as these months have passed), and she can rationalize them away.

“Stop hogging the sugar bowl,” Koala says, and reaches across Robin’s hands to grab the bowl from Hack. “Ah, sorry.”

Robin smiles. “It’s fine.”

“You looked lost in thought,” says Hack.

“I was thinking about a recurring dream.”

“Of what?” says Koala, through a mouthful of toast.

“A train station.”

“Cool,” says Koala. “I’ve never been on a train. But you have, right?”

Robin nods. Of course everyone here knows about the Enies Lobby incident, and about the sea train. She’s expecting more questions, but Koala doesn’t follow it up with anything. She’s still looking at Robin, as if she wishes to know more, but, having spooned enough sugar into her tea, takes a sip of that instead.

* * *

Koala is not usually so restrained; she speaks freely of what’s on her mind, whether that’s praise or criticism or observation, a question or an answer. But, thinking about it from a different angle, she alone among the Revolutionaries has not probed quite so deeply into Robin’s past. It’s not relevant to what she does, but it’s not relevant to what many people do. But they have asked her about Ohara, about Baroque Works, about Enies Lobby, about other things that Robin didn’t know they knew. 

Robin has not asked Koala about her past, either; some parts Koala has spoken of unprompted; some others Robin has learned through casual conversation. Large chunks of that are still missing, but Robin wouldn’t ask herself. Her natural curiosity loses out against the pain that must flow through the missing links, that flows through the ones Robin has, and perhaps it’s the same for Koala. Consideration and tact, when she is afforded it (and they are often afforded very little). 

Enies Lobby is less painful than the old wounds she’s never quite figured out to heal. It’s fresh, and the good outweighs the bad, and everything since then has made it easier to look back into the scarred landscape of her memory. And, as a friend, if Koala wants to know, she can handle looking over it yet another time.

* * *

“I don’t mind if you ask me about Enies Lobby,” says Robin. “Or anything else.”

“I was that obvious, huh?” says Koala.

“Yes,” says Robin. “But thank you for your consideration.”

* * *

Robin has heard the best way to learn is to teach, which is why she volunteers to help assist Koala and Hack’s fishman karate class. Or, nominally, it’s the reason. They don’t need to hear it or even to believe it; after all, her extra limbs come in handy to help move people into positions, her extra eyes to look from all angles and call attention to mistakes in form. 

Her own form is mediocre; she twists her body and it refuses to stay there, like a piece of ribbon curled around a finger and let loose to straighten itself out again. And she’s not really trying, because if she does get it right, she won’t have Koala touch her and prod her into position, over again. Koala’s hands stay on Robin’s skin longer than they need to, and Robin is not so blatant as to cross a line and say she needs help with something else (and they are not alone; Hack is also still there, and clearly aware of what they’re doing). 

“Have you even learned anything?” Koala says.

This time, Robin does try. She forces her body to hold a pose it does not want to, and then raises her arm, and then one leg. (The point, after all, really was to learn, if nothing else.)

Koala furrows her brow, looking for a mistake. 

“Show me again.”

Hack says something under his breath about wasting time. Robin pretends not to hear him.

* * *

“I know you’re leaving in a year and a half,” Koala says. “But if you’re okay with staying together until then—?”

Her eyes are focused on Robin’s, strong and steady. 

“Or longer,” Robin says. “If that’s fine with you.”

“Oh!” Koala says. “Yes, I mean, it’s still a long way off, but—yes.”

Robin smiles, but to say Koala smiles back would be a grave understatement. She beams like a star up close, her face lit up brighter than the circle of the sun in a clear sky. She hugs Robin the way she always does, but this time buries her face in Robin’s chest, squeezes her tight around the middle. Robin doesn’t consider herself great at this kind of affection, but when she sprouts three extra sets of arms to hold more of Koala, Koala holds her even tighter and she knows she’s done the right thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday Robin!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
